The right to request flexible working to parents of children up to the age of 18 will be in place by April 2011. Currently, the right to request flexible working is available to parents of children aged 17 and under and disabled children under 18, and carers of certain adults.

Copies of References to Employees - Can an Applicant see the References we have taken?

In line with the DPA, the applicant has certain rights with regard to access to reference detail. However, we must attempt at all times protect the author of the reference where possible. Ultimately if the applicant requests to see a copy of their file, and pays their £10.00, we are obliged to provide copies of references regardless of whether the author has given permission or not, but we can attempt to anonymise the reference.

For example:-

ABC Limited provides an employment reference for one of its employees to eNL. If the employee makes a subject access request to ABC Limited, the reference will be exempt from disclosure. If the employee makes the request to eNLs, the reference is not automatically exempt from disclosure and the usual subject access rules apply.

Equality Act 2010

A reminder of key points to be aware of:-

Harmonises existing anti-discrimination law into a single piece of legislation.

Sets out 9 personal characteristics protected by the legislation, which are:

Disability Race

Gender reassignment Sex

Sexual orientation Religion or belief

Marriage Age

Civil partnership

Key changes to the definition of discrimination, including disability, whereby you can no longer ask job applicants about their health and whether they have a disability, prior to making a job offer. There are a few exceptions, which include, establishing whether the applicant would be able to participate in an assessment interview, reasonable adjustments to recruitment process are required or to establish whether applicant able to carry out a function intrinsic to the work concerned).

The Act allows for medical questions to be asked after a job offer has been made, but prior to commencement.

Other types of discrimination now include:-

Associative discrimination, because he or she associates with another person who may have a protected characteristic

Perceptive discrimination, where others think that a person has a particular protected characteristic.

Third party harassment, company maybe liable for harassment of their employees other people, i.e. third parties who are not employees of our Company, e.g. clients.